To Be a Hero
by Forlornhero
Summary: Danny saved Terra from death once before. Now when Vlad decided to force him to move to Jump City Danny has to help Terra once again. DannyxTerra, a fun but still fluffy pairing in my opinion. TEEN TITANS CROSSOVER
1. Chapter 1

The Oath of the Heroes.

I will always think of others before myself

I shall never ever think about personal gain or the gratitude I get from others.

I shall always try to save people. No matter what they think of me or what I think of them

I will follow the path which saves the most people without hesitation.

Finally, I shall never kill another living being. For as long as I exist, this is what I promise.

Danny Phantom took this oath the very day he survived his future self's attack. The Oath was one which Danny respected dearly and through all consequences, fought to uphold. It was part of his hero syndrome, to help all others before helping himself, if he though about himself at all. Every time somebody got hurt it was his fault, every time somebody felt bad he was the one to help them. This caring nature, though valued in upmost respect to many, was sadly a weakness for his enemies. He fell into traps all too often because his friends had been captured and laid out as bait. The bait which Danny eagerly took no matter what the consequences were to him.

Danny had gotten up early one lazy Sunday morning and decided to go downstairs and watch some TV. He walked down the staircase in his normal street cloths, pausing only to grab a box of cereal from the kitchen. The sofa was a welcomed Danny as he turned the television on with his free hand. He switched through the channels endlessly before deciding that nothing exciting was on. After contemplating going back to bed for a few hours, he chose to turn over to the news to catch up on current events. He laid the remote down on the ground and popped some cereal into his mouth.

"Yesterday Jump City was saved once again from the teen heroes internationally known as the Teen Titians." Danny snorted. How he wished he could have the bliss of not having his secret identity. "The potentially destructive volcano has been prevented from erupting by the Titans and surprisingly the hero turned villain called Terra." The volcano on the screen was replaced by an image of Terra. Fully adorned in her Slade battle suit. Danny let the cereal box drop of his hands and his jaw drop. It wasn't like him to be transfixed by somebody this much but he just couldn't help it. He saw so much of himself in Terra. The pain, the anger and confusion that she didn't know what she wanted to be. It was like a female version of himself that he saw in Terra's watery blue eyes. The news reader jolted Danny back to the real world.

"We have been told by the Teen Titans that she supposedly gave her life to kill Slade and prevent the eruption. It is true that we owe this girl our lives. The Titan's member Beast Boy had this to say." Beast boy appeared on the screen. You could see from his eyes and posture that he was in great emotional pain. "Please," he said, quietly and pitifully. "If anybody has any information on where she may be. If she has survived… call this number." Danny didn't wait for the number to appear, he was already in the air, flying at full speed towards the volcano. If she was there he was going to find her. A person who had sacrificed herself to help her friends was worthy of a second chance in Danny's books. God help the person who tried to deny her that which Danny was trying to give her. Life.

Within half an hour the Volcano was in view. Danny slowed down for the next few miles, using his heightened senses to gain an edge in searching for something, anything which could prove that Terra was alive. After another ten minutes Danny was getting frustrated. He had searched all around the volcano and he could see nothing to indicate Terra had survived. His shoulders fell in defeat. Maybe she hadn't survived. But then he saw something, a glimmer of metal in the morning sun. Danny shot towards it with a speed which rivalled a top of the line fighter jet. Landing on the small beach he looked for the source of the metallic glimmer. A hand was protruding from a large pile of rubble and debris. He began pulling apart the rubble with gained strength and determination; only thinking that perhaps she had survived, perhaps he had saved her. After a good five minutes of pulling apart the rock tomb he found her. Terra lay at an odd angle on the sandy ground and her arms and legs were twisted in weird ways. However Danny could see her chest rising and falling and let out a sigh of relief. She was still alive, injured maybe, but alive never the less.

Terra groaned quietly and started to regain consciousness. She felt so weak but she still remembered everything. Slade using her against Beast Boy, her turning against Slade in the volcano and preventing him from destroying the city. She tried to move but a jolt of pain told her that she wouldn't be doing anything of the sort for a long time.

"Don't move. This may hurt a little but you have to trust me." Terra was terrified. What was going to happen to her? Was one of Slade's lackeys going to finish her off for destroying their master? She tried to speak her thoughts but found that she could make no noise but a slight whisper. Unbearable pain shot through her nerves and she let out another cry of pain. Danny had just set the bone straight in her left leg and was about to do the same to her other limbs, saying words of comfort all the time he did it. It pained him to hear her screams but he threw it all out of his mind. This girl was going to be saved whether she liked it or not.

"Who are you?" she managed to say before blackness crept into her vision. The last thing she saw was a teenage boy with snow white hair gazing down on her, a spark of contempt and admiration vivid in his neon green eyes.

"I'm Danny Phantom. You'll be with your friends soon." With those words Danny picked up her frail body and set off towards the Titan's Tower. He smiled. It felt good to be a hero.

Don't blame me if you find that I didn't get many of my Titan facts right. I don't know much about the series. Reviews would be greatly appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello. Thought I might make this one-shot a real story if only because I have nothing to do. All my other stories have got a little boring to read. Bare in kind that this genre is not my best and there may be mistakes to do with events in the TT series. I don't watch it very often.

-James

"_Terra!"_

"_We found you friend."_

"_How did she get here anyway?"_

"_It doesn't matter; just get her to the medical bay as quick as you can. Somebody has already set her bones back into place from the looks of it."_

Terra opened her eyes for the first time in hours. A blinding white light shone down on her face and she quickly shut her eyes again. _Am I dead?_ She was not dead, rather in the Titan Tower, the medical bay to be more specific. Earlier that morning the cameras had picked up something. Something impossible. Robin and the rest of the Titans were currently watching the security tape for what had to be the hundredth time that morning and still they could not believe their eyes. Everything was as it had been for as long as the camera had been placed there and suddenly Terra appeared on the front doorstep, setting off the motion alarms in an instant.

"How is this possible?" asked Cyborg.

"I don't know, even I can't turn myself invisible or fool Cyborg's motion sensors." Raven answered him. She was an expert in stealth by using powers and yet she could not do what was on the tape. Somebody had to be one powerful person to pull of that. What worried the entire team the most was whether the person who did this was going to be threat. Just thinking of the amount of crimes somebody could pull off with such power made Robins skin crawl. Terra let out an involuntary groan as when she tried to move her head. _Déjà vu_ _much?_ She thought. All the Titans bounded to her bedside. Beast Boy especially happy to see her awake again.

"Terra!" he screamed, turning into a cat and pouncing onto her chest. "You're okay!"

"Yea. I guess I am." Her voice was still raspy and weak from her injuries, but at least it was an improvement from the last time she had tried her voice.

"But how?" Robin was not wasting any time with this case; he didn't want any massive crimes being committed for a long time. The public was now aware of the fact that their heroes weren't always going to be enough to save the day, and with Terra being a heroin turned villain turned heroin, the public was going to consider the Titans loyalties.

"I don't know, I just woke up and there was this guy, white hair and…" she slipped into unconsciousness again and Robin sighed.

"Cyborg, can you look up every known hero with white hair please? When Terra wakes up she should be able to identify them so we can give then their reward."

"Honestly Robin, I don't think this guy wants to be noticed." The half man, half machine said.

"I could get that. For god's sake he even went invisible on us to get her here." Beast Boy had a good point.

"Fine then. But I'm still announcing that we want to give him a reward on TV."

"Fair enough since he won't claim it anyway." Robin scowled at Beast Boy. "What?"

Three months later: The Fenton House. Jump City

Danny walked into his house and threw his bag beside the door. Another day had gone by without so much as a 'boo!' from any ghosts. Danny knew why this was but I better start from the beginning. A few days after Danny had saved Terra, Vlad decided he was going to make Danny's life harder once again. This time he offered Jack and Maddie a permanent job in the Jump branch of DALV corp. The job consisted mainly of creating bigger and better anti ghost weapons for the army so of course Danny's parents charged in like a mad bull to accept his offer; forgetting the fact that Jump City is fifty miles away from Amity Park and that Danny's only friends were not going to be able to make the journey often. Jazz and Danny both had nearly exploded when they first heard the news. Tucker was distraught, Sam was in tears and Danny was pissed of at Vlad. He had gone too far this time. What Vlad didn't count on was the fact that Jack and Maddie wouldn't bother to build a new portal in their new house and had shut down the one in Amity. Ghosts could no longer easily bother Danny unless they got into the real world by a freak portal opening, and they were usually unpredictable. Danny had only had a few attacks in the last few months and was beginning to enjoy his time at Jump. Criminals did attack the city but Danny just left that to the Teen Titans. Ghosts were his problem, not humans.

The news was that Terra was finally out of the hospital and would be joining the Titans as an official member. He loved the idea that Terra would become a hero once more. He saw so much of her in himself. After all, he could easily throw his hero life away and become a villain with Vlad as Terra had with Slade (like that was going to happen). Danny looked at his watch, four thirty. He still had two hours to go around the city as much as he wanted. Danny's grades had soared, he finally managed to get some sleep at night and he still talked to Sam and Tucker on the internet regularly. All in all, Vlad's plan to crush Danny's motivation because of his friends absence had backfired. He hardly even bothered Danny anymore.

Danny changed into Phantom form and flew intangible through the ceiling into the fresh air. Danny took a lung full of the stuff before setting off around the city. He neared the centre of town when a huge explosion caught his attention. Beast Boy flew through the air into the wall opposite the electronic store which exploded previously and hit it with a sickening crunch. Danny winced at similar experiences of walls he had been thrown into. It looked as if Beast Boy was out for the count. Danny mentally shrugged, people had been through worse and he was sure the other Titans would help him. Right?

Hero and Normal sides of his brain exchanged blows in his mind. Eventually Danny decided to watch the battle and if things started to get out of control he would help out a little while staying invisible as to preserve his anonymous status in the City. Danny phased into the shop and was met with a disaster area. The entire placed looked as if it had been hit with a nuclear bomb. In the middle of the store was Overload, greedily attaching computers and other tech to his control board. Danny looked around for any sign of the other Titans and saw then tied up with metal bonds. Only Terra was left standing, alone in the clearing. She flicked her blond hair behind her ears and turned away from her friends towards Overload.

"Hey!" she yelled.

"What do you want girl. You should run while you still can!"

"Some how I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon." The concrete under the ground broke free from the constraints of the earth and flew up to topside. Terra then proceeded to throw the large boulders at overload, hoping to damage his control board or at least sever the connection between him and the computers boosting him power. Overload simply blocked the rocks before retaliating with a massive bolt to her chest. The electric charge shocked her to the very core and she screamed in pain. Her body fell the ground, smoking and defeated. Danny was getting worried, he had seen enough fights to know when somebody would be able to take another hit or not. This was one of those times when somebody was _not_ going to take another. Overload let out an evil cackle and walked towards Terra.

"You shall be sorry for that. Goodbye, apprentice of Slade." He brought his foot up high above her head. The Titans cried out but there was nothing they could do to save her from the death that awaited her. Over load brought his foot crashing down and Terra closed her eyes, waiting for the impact and thus end of her life. But the impact never came. Danny was crouched in front of her, his hands outstretched and power feeding a shield which was blocking Overload's boot from Terra.

"It's you." She whispered. Danny looked around and grinned.

"I'll always be there, don't worry."

"Who dares to protect her from Overloads wrath?" Danny turned his head back to Overload.

"Sorry mate, but you're going to regret having done this." Danny let the shield fall down leaving just enough time for him to deliver an upper cut to Overloads face. Overload was sent flying back but Danny didn't just stop with that one punch. He threw Overload into the air before powering up a massive ectoblast. The blast consumed Overload in a matter of seconds so all that could be heard was his dying screams. The titans watched in awe as Danny let the blast end, leaving only a pile of ash where the all powerful Overload once was. Danny turned back to Terra before stretching out a hand to help her to her feet.

"Like I said, I'll always be there when you need it Terra."

"How do you know my name, and why did you save me."

"Why not?" Danny responded, before giving a gentleman's bow and fading from view.

Hope you liked it! Review please! Also, this is not an adaptation of any other story and to be honest I couldn't even find one with the same title by searching.


	3. Chapter 3

I thought this story would just be a small thing to keep me entertained in the half term holidays but you guys really seem to like it! I almost had a heart attack when my email spurted out notifications of at least seven different favourites and alerts in the space of 24 hours. So here it is, the next chapter of **To Be a Hero**

**To Be a Hero**

**Chapter Three**

Terra sat in her room in the Titan Tower lost in her own mind. On the bed beside her was the laptop she had received as an initiation present from Cyborg, displaying various different articles about her protector: Danny Phantom. As soon as he had disappeared she had raced over to her friends to untie them from the metal restraints, now easily breakable once Overload had been defeated. No, more than defeated, Danny had literally obliterated Overload as if he was simply an ant being crushed by his shoe. Robin was worried as usual about if he was on their side even though everybody else including me knew he was. Why would he help her in the first place if he wasn't good?

The worrying thing was open on Terra's laptop. Articles listing the various assaults, masterminded ghost invasions and even the abduction of the Mayor of the town of Amity Park, where the Phantom had originated. In contrast the website: , listed every eyewitness account that Phantom was really fighting against the ghosts and that he had been framed by other ghosts and even controlled by a mad circus ringmaster. Terra shook her head in order to clear the fighting views from her mind; this was all just so confusing.

She walked out onto the neon lit corridors and made her way towards Raven's room. Raven, though never the most trusting of the Titans, would know the most about spirits and apparitions such as Phantom. She reached the door and immediately shivered, the temperature always dropped when you got near the dark sorcerer's room. Terra was about to knock when the door slid open, revealing the Dark Titan herself.

"Raven, I…" Terra stuttered.

"I'm an empath remember. Come in." Raven turned her back on terra and walked into her darkened room. Terra hesitated. Beast boy had once told a story about a certain mirror…

"I won't bite." Raven said again, beckoning Terra in. Terra took a deep breath and walked into the room. Terra had never dared to enter Ravens room before but the interior was just as she had imagined. Black walls, black carpet, black curtains permanently closed and lit candles as the only source of light. Raven was herself on the bed, dusty old textbooks and manuals detailing the history of spirits piled up around her. Terra took a seat beside Raven and picked up one of the books. _The Theory of The Ghost Zone Dimensions, by Maddie Fenton._ Terra quickly skimmed over the blurb.

_This book details the theory made by me and my husband that all ghosts live in this world's parallel dimension. Nicknamed 'The Ghost Zone'. In this book you will read about how we created a gateway to this world and proved our theory to be right. This also details our encounters with various spectres including the mysterious and multi moraled Danny Phantom. _

"Have you read this one yet?" she asked Raven. Holding up the book for her to see.

"Only the part about your protector, he does seem to have done a lot of good and bad things recently. But that doesn't matter. What we do need to figure out is why he has suddenly chosen to protect you in person. He might have a ghostly obsession with you, and that could be pretty dangerous."

"Urgh. I'm going to go out for a while, clear my head."

"I'll tell Robin, just don't get into any trouble with criminals before calling us for backup."

Terra nodded before going back to her room to put on some normal clothes. Her uniform was alright but sometimes she just wanted to blend in with the crowd. The crowd was exactly where she was going to go today…

* * *

"Here you go ma'am, one baked potato with cream cheese and sausages." Danny grimaced at the order, this may be his job to serve weird and wonderful food to people but that didn't mean he had to like it. Danny had had a job as a canteen server for a month now. He enjoyed spending his day with food and hoped to be promoted to chef in the next few weeks. He didn't earn much as of now but meeting interesting people who came was always something of an experience.

"Hey Danny." Danny looked up from the food he was going to serve. There stood one of his favourite customers, Terra.

"Hey Terra. Guys! I'm taking my break now!" after taking off his apron and hanging it up on the wall he sat in a booth next to terra. Terra had been visiting the canteen ever since she first became a Titan after the volcano incident and she and Danny had become good friends.

"So," started Danny. "What's going on in the world of superheroes these days?" Terra hesitated for a moment and Danny read her mind. She was debating whether to tell him about Phantom.

"I guess I can tell you." Danny smiled. "Me and the team were fighting Overload and to be honest he had us against the ropes. The entire team was tied up with these metal restraints except for me and beast boy. Beats boy got knocked out and that left me."

She looked down at the table, he shoulders drooped. "I was the last one standing and… I was about to die. I had failed the entire team and was defenceless to Overload. He was about to get me when suddenly he appeared."

"He?" Danny questioned, though he obviously already knew the answer.

"Danny Phantom. He shielded me and then smoked Overload. He quote literally destroyed him then and there. All that we could find of him was dust."

"Hey I know about Danny Phantom. My home town is Amity Park you know."

"Awesome! You can help us with this case!" She whipped out a pen and wrote a note on a spare napkin. "Give this to your boss and come with me. You can really help us clear this up."

"If I do help out do I get to join the Titans?" Danny joked.

"Sorry, but no." Danny fake pouted and Terra started to laugh in which Danny joined soon after. Terra always loved these times, just hanging out with a friend. No worries over villains or past actions coming back to haunt her. She wasn't even sure if she _liked_ liked Danny. Sure Beast Boy was nice but he could never get over the fact that she had such power. Her geomancer skills had their pros and cons. Danny didn't care though, he just treated her like a normal person, not like everybody else she knew who treated her like their superior.

* * *

"Where's Terra?" Robin asked the rest of the Titans. Beast Boy and Cyborg were currently on the Xbox, Starfire was in the kitchen making some her infamous mustard surprise and Raven was sitting on the sofa, reading one of her many books.

"She went out to clear her head about this whole Phantom thing. She should be back soon." No sooner had the words left Raven's mouth when the lift doors opened to reveal Terra herself, dragging another figure behind her. Robin raised an eyebrow; Terra had brought someone into the Tower? On closer inspection the figure was in fact a boy of about the same age. He was constantly looking around, as if he was expecting something to attack him at any moment.

"Who's this?" The rest of the Titans looked around in anticipation; Robin didn't like strangers to be in the Tower. Not even if they were there friends. It was too much of a distraction.

"I'm Danny, a friend of Terra." Danny reached out his hand and Robin shook it, shooting a glance at terra as he did however, making the girls squirm. She had forgotten how touchy Robin was.

"And what is your business here Danny."

"I know about Danny Phantom."

* * *

Please take the time to Review, I'm sure you all have **something **to say to me!


	4. Chapter 4

**To Be a Hero**

**Chapter Three**

"_I know about Danny Phantom."_

Robins eyebrow soared so high that it was almost lost forever in his hair, which was saying something if you look how short his non-existent fringe is. To question everybody was thinking was asked after a moment of astonishment by non other than Beast Boy.

"How?"

"I'd rather tell you sitting down if that's ok." Said Danny with a cheery smile. Despite his friendly manner, the cogs were turning pretty damned fast in that brain of his, facts, stories and other snippets of information flew into his mind. Danny had to be sure what exactly he was going to tell the Titians, though he expected them to have done their own research into his notorious crimes. Robin wasn't the most trusting person on the earth but if something could be a potential threat he was on it like a pack of wolves to a dead chicken.

Beast Boy turned into a dog and sat on the floor, making room for Danny on the sofa in the process. Danny gratefully took the seat and once he was comfortable, he began the long process of half lies and fibs along with the real stories.

"From the first I know it was about six months ago when he first showed up. It was right after my ghost hunting parents opened a portal to the ghost zone. I know it sounds pretty stupid to do such a thing but loads of ghosts escaped. It started with some ghostly ectopusses and Phantom got them back in. Next major attack was with a ghost called the lunch lady but loads of other ghosts attack regularly, though I think it has stopped now that we took down our portal. I personally met Phantom when he saved me from another rogue ghost, he was about to leave but I got him talking and we sort of became friends."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop." Cyborg interrupted. "You're parents are ghost hunters and you made friends with a ghost?" Danny nodded. "Awkward much?" The entire contents of the room burst out in laughter, even Raven managed a small chuckle.

"You don't know the half of it." He murmured under his breath. Danny started telling the stories that 'Phantom had told him' and the Titans hung on his every word as though he was some sort of messiah. Though for Danny it was understandable, he couldn't quite believe the things that he had had to go through either. Part of him still missed the feeling of adventure, the sensation of the adrenaline pumping through his veins or through his ectoplasm. He went through the stories of ghosts as though it was a timeline, from his meeting with each ghost to other major events. Even the reality gauntlet incident. However when he got to the future self bit he decided it was best not to tell, for both his emotional safety and to preserve the Titans opinion of Phantom. What they didn't know in this case definitely wouldn't hurt them and he didn't want anybody getting the wrong idea that he could have turned into that. It still gave him nightmares at night.

While Danny was telling his stories and everybody was listening quietly, somebody was listening on a whole new level. Raven may have looked as though she was looking at Danny but in reality she was probing his every word for any type of deceit or trickery. She even went to the point of using her knowledge of body language as well as mental scans of tone and voice. The results were mixed to say the least. It was to Raven as if every story he told was true, every part of it. From the enemies to how Phantom and his friends saved Amity Park and the world time and time again. In contrast the lie hit as soon as Danny spoke about himself _being friends with_ Phantom. Every time he said something along the lines of 'I and Phantom 'or 'Tucker Sam and I helped him like this.' It just didn't make any sense! Why would he lie about knowing Phantom in person yet know all these things about his conflicts and even emotions. Emotions, that led onto another thing, it was like Danny knew exactly what happened because he had lived it. Whenever the story Phantom would get hurt Raven would sense that Danny had just felt the wound again in his mind. This entire thing made Raven come to the conclusion that she had to have a private talk with Danny, and although she hated to admit it, read his mind, forcefully if she had to.

The most worrying thing that she ever felt was as he was about to begin another story she was swept off her feet the strongest of negative emotions: Concern. Anger, sadness, regret, apprehension, fear, guilt. They all bombarded Ravens psyche to the point where she had to excuse herself with the excuse of going to the bathroom. Danny Fenton was a puzzle; and Raven made a pledge that she would figure him out if it was the last thing she did.

* * *

"I guess I don't have that much more to tell you." Danny had finally finished telling his vast amount of stories to the Titans.

"It sounds like you have been through a hell of a lot with your friends, you're a hero in my book." Said Robin. Danny felt the blush come to his face and tried to wave the compliment off but Terra would have none of it.

"Don't be stupid Danny. Of course you're a hero! You saved a town for crying out loud."

"Now that wasn't me, that was more Phan…" he was cut short when arms were flung around his neck and he was pushed into the Sofa. Everybody else in the room didn't quite know what to do. In fact, they were astonished. Terra had never wanted that much human contact and if they were honest with themselves the Titans hadn't wanted to give her any. Bruises were still sore despite her double betrayal towards Slade. That was why they were pretty surprised when Terra made such obvious contact. After a few seconds Terra also realized what she was doing and pulled away quickly, face turning red at a tremendous rate. Danny was still clueless to her embarrassment and gave her a huge grin before his eyes caught sight of the clock in the kitchen.

"Aww Frick. 10pm already! I'm never going to make it home until it's past my curfew." That wasn't true in the slightest. He could easily travel at 130 miles per hour in ghost form and with the energy he had stored up he would be surprised if he couldn't go close to 150.

"Don't worry friend. I'm sure friend Robin will let you stay the night." Said a rather eager Starfire. She had enjoyed his stories and was impressed by his heroics, even if she didn't know the full extent of his deeds.

"Will you?" Everybody looked at Robin. Robin sighed.

"I guess you could stay in someone's room. Pick anybody and if they're willing to give you the space then I have some spare sleeping bags somewhere."

"I don't want to intrude more that I already have. I'll sleep on the couch."

"Don't be stupid, you're my friend so you can sleep in my room." Terra was struggling to keep her glee in check at the current situation. Her appreciation of Danny had soared in the past night and now she saw him as more. More than a friend to her, a companion. Besides he did look pretty cute…

"So it's settled then." Cyborg half shouted before Robin could object to a guy staying in Terra's room. He could see where this was going and even though Robin was the leader, he was the oldest so it was his self- proclaimed responsibility to make sure that everybody was happy. If Danny made Terra happy then in his mind it would do her good to have him say with her. Cyborg was perhaps the most sympathetic towards Terra's situation in the Tower and held to resentment towards her. 'Never hold a grudge.' Was his golden rule in life. Except for Slade of course.

Terra grabbed Danny by the hand and pulled him out of the room. Talking wildly.

"Why the hell did you do that?" asked Robin, he wasn't very angry, just a little confused. Cyborg chuckled.

"It's about time she found somebody she could, you know. Love."

* * *

"_What do you think?"_

Please review! I have tried to give deeper reasons for decisions but I wouldn't have even thought about that if Random Flyer hadn't have informed me of what I was doing wrong. Reviews are really helpful even if it's just a small diea or a 'remember to spell … correctly.' Thank you! I may not write another chapter for a while, as my 'The Great Case of Danny Phantom' needs updating majorly. Go check that out on my page.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello all! Sorry to have taken so long to update. The reason I took so long is that schoolwork finally caught up with me so I had to finish that before I got working on this (and I'm a lazy bugger.)

Anyways, enjoy!

-James

* * *

**To be a Hero**

**Chapter Five**

"What do you think?" Danny blushed furiously. He had just been dragged around a countless amount of hallways and stairs to get to Terra's room. He honestly didn't know how he had gotten himself in this situation. If he was ever honest with himself, Danny liked Terra. He knew she was a superhero and all (like he could be) but she always overlooked that. Danny still remembered when he had first seen her in the canteen. She had come in wearing all sorts of baggy clothing to try and blend in. She had even tied her hair back in a pony tail to try and avoid being noticed. Luckily some of the people in Jump are similar to the people in Amity Park in the way that they are all freaking clueless. Danny may also be clueless, but he could recognize somebody wearing a disguise any day.

"_Good disguise Terra." Danny whispered to the girl after handing her her meal. She looked shocked at first but she quickly changed into a face which Danny knew all too well._

"_Heh…what do you mean?" Danny just chuckled at her face that moment. It was a look which brought back so many memories. 'Is that what I always looked like?' he wondered._

"_Don't worry," Danny said in a very gentle and hushed tone. "I won't tell."_

"_Really?"_

That was when he and Terra became friends. Danny was still feeling a major sense of déjà vu. He felt the same way with Terra what he had previously felt with Sam only months before. If it wasn't for his amazing shyness then he would have probably asked her out by now but, just like with Sam, he didn't want to ruin their friendship. Now though, it was very awkward to sleep in the girl you were crushing on's _bedroom_ while she is fucking _almost nude!_

"It's great Terra. By the way where am I sleeping?" I had noticed that there was only one bed in the room. The room itself was painted sun yellow and looked just like any normal teens bedroom would look. A few posters were on the wall including a few bands which I had never heard of. Terra herself must not have owned pyjamas, or she didn't bother to wear any. She was only wearing a vest which did nothing to cover anything but her breasts and normal panties. Danny could feel himself sweating as he fighted the urge to gawk in awe. Luckily for him, Robin chose that moment to walk in. His eyebrow went into it's usual position when he saw the two. He smirked inwardly when he remembered Cyborg's comment. He just grinned at Danny before throwing him a sleeping bag and pillow and walking out the door. Just for good measure shouting a quick: 'You two have fun', ignoring Terra's glare.

After an hour everything was quiet, the lights were off and Danny was looking forward to a good nights rest. He had just gotten comfortable when Terra asked a question.

"Why do you think Phantom is following me?" Danny paused, it would be better to tell her the truth about why he was protecting her especially in the first place. She had a right to know anyway.

"He sees a lot of himself in you. I know this is a sore subject but he could have gone over to the darker side like you were tricked into doing a lot of times." He could just imagine Terra's face. Sad and self blaming. Danny felt the same every time he thought about what he could have become. All it would have taken was one mistake and the ripples of his decision would have doomed the earth entirely.

"I didn't tell the rest of you this but Phantom saw what he would have become if he did turn to the side of evil. Let's just say that one mistake he made practically destroyed the entire world. He became a self blaming sociopath, a maniac. Only capable of self satisfaction and escape from his mistakes by murdering innocents." Terra just stayed silent, taking into account the pain evident in Danny's voice. She did not need to see his face to realise that this subject troubled him greatly. Terra thanked him and told him to go to sleep before turning over in her soft, white sheets.

Phantom was still a mystery, as was Danny. Truth was Terra was worried. Worried about how the Titans would treat Danny if he became her boyfriend, worried about her enemies. Slade was still alive. Though she hadn't told any of the other Titans that he was for the sake of their sanity. Robin would go mental about tracking him down again and that would make the rest of them depressed and cranky as well as pile tons of extra work and patrols upon them. She would be too busy to visit Danny at the canteen, too busy to even think about what was happening until it was too late. The person in the team she was most worried about having a problem with her and Danny was Beast Boy. Beast Boy and herself had had a small fling a little while back before she was manipulated by Slade into betraying him. Terra silently cursed herself for being so naive, for seeing Slade as a role model rather than an enemy to be feared.

Terra turned again and looked at Danny. His breathing had regulated itself into a typical sleep pattern so Terra made sure to be quiet as she slipped out of bed and out of the door. She took a right and headed down the corridor, lights illuminating on the ceiling as they detected motion below. A few brisk paces later and Terra was in the bathroom. She always went here to think things through, tending to speak in whispers and half-thoughts to her reflection in the mirror.

She took up her usual position, standing opposite the mirror in her nightwear (or lack of). She smiled as she looked at herself with so little cloths on. As soon as she knew that Danny would be spending the night in her room Terra had made sure to _misplace_ her usual night garments. Opting instead to give Danny a small test. His nervous behaviour and politely controlling his eyes was an A* pass. He did like her, at least slightly, but was man enough to respect her.

"I guess I should wait until he makes a move, or at least until we have sorted this Phantom thing out for good." She spoke to her reflection. "Maybe we should go out for a dinner or something like that. Plus, if Robin is cool with it we could hang around in the Tower, then again…" Her thoughts drifted to Beast Boy's reaction to seeing the two of them being a potential couple. He could go all out jealous and even Beast Boy would be a huge threat to Danny. Terra would be there to protect him if she had too but it was still a worrying thought which just wouldn't go away. In contrast, Beast Boy could have gotten over her already though that seemed very doubtful, it would make things much easier.

"Don't kid yourself Terra." She whispered, letting herself fall to her knees as she leaned her head against the counter in front of the mirror. Her voice soon raised into a shout. "Nothing is ever that easy for you. Every chance you've had you've blown it. What makes this any different? You let your team down, you the town down." Her hand found its way inside one of the draws and emerged holding a large knife. Only to be used for this time of her night. Terra had received this knife from her uncle when she was still very young. From a time which seemed so long ago. Before her gift had even surfaced. Before her life got turned upside down. Her family abandoned her in the forest, Slade found her. He was such a nice man then, or so she thought. You only had to follow his instructions and he wouldn't get angry. In a few years something happened. Terra still had no idea what made him suddenly decide to wear the mask. To turn into the monster with no real motive. Only destruction, death, would feed his ever growing pallet for villainy.

A single silver tear slowly down her face as she opened the knife up, exposing the razor sharp blade. She drew the cold knife across her left arm. She didn't care if she caught a vein; she didn't care whether she damaged herself anymore. All she cared about was the blood. The blood which rid her of all those pesky emotions. Fear, hate, all leaked from the cut in the form of the red liquid. It was the only thing keeping Terra sane anymore. Raven's suspicions, Beast Boy and Cyborg's daily idiocy, Robin's leader syndrome and Starfire's abnormal and annoying cheeriness. Blood flowed freely into her vest which was now drenched in the red liquid. The vein which had been severed showed no signs of healing and soon Terra faded from consciousness.

One thought still crossed her mind though, even as she passed out, a pool of blood forming around her frail figure. _**Why me?**_

Danny woke up from his slumber and sat bolt upright. Hand outstretched in front of him. Something was wrong, he knew it.

"**Terra?"**

**

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**

Danny looked with bleary sight at his outstretched arm. It had been like that when he had woken up and refused to go down when Danny tried to make it. It just kept straight, pointing to the wall in front of him.

"Terra?" he asked again, still half asleep. Silence greeted him like a blanket. Danny willed his eyes to glow and as they did the darkness in the room simply disappeared. Perfect night vision was just another one of his powers as a half ghost. The sheets were discarded and the bed was bare. Danny knew that it could easily be explained away; she could have gone to the toilet or perhaps gone for a midnight snack. Even as every possibility made itself known to Danny, something just kept telling him that there was something more to this.

Danny gave up trying to make his arm go down and instead stood up and transformed immediately. His arm still refused to go down and Danny was sure he could feel a slight tugging sensation now he was in ghost mode. Worried if not just a little curious as to this strange situation, he floated forward and phased through the wall. He ended up in a hallway which looked exactly the same as any other he had been in, so it didn't help to let him know where he was in the mammoth of a Tower. He really did have to get a tour in the morning, or at least a map. He followed the corridor before finding what looked to be some toilets, male and female. Danny was about to go past them when his arm turned violently. His entire body moved towards the door to the girls' bathroom.

"What the hell?" Danny thought out loud, before realising what this force which was holding his arm was trying to get him to do. "Oh no," Danny started, shaking his head from side to side in exasperation. "No way are you making me go in there, if you're really a person anyways."

His arm was having none of it and the tugging sensation only grew. Danny sighed and after a moment of concentration turned invisible. He flew into the toilets muttering something along the lines of: "the things I have to do."

Danny's heart stood still, his jaw fell down and he let out a shrill gasp of surprise and confusion. Terra was lying motionless on the floor in a pool of crimson liquid. It took Danny's brain another few moments to notice the cuts on her arms and the knife by her side. The wounds certainly looked self inflicted. Another few seconds past before the hero side of Danny fully took control. Danny ran over to her side and fumbled around her neck, trying desperately to find some sign of a pulse. It was there, weak, but still there.

"HELP" Danny yelled, adding a very weak ghostly wail into his voice to make sure the Titans woke up. He then diverted his attention back to Terra.

Perhaps this would be the ideal time to tell you about how ghosts actually work. A ghost is made up of ectoplasm, a rare earth element seen in the periodic table after Mr and Mrs Fenton's case presented to the Darwin science committee in 2007; around the time when ghosts were accepted as real beings. For ectoplasm to become a ghost, it must first have a certain amount of activation energy to start a series of reactions which eventually manifest into consciousness. Once the first reactions have been completed the ghost can then take energy out of its surrounding area. That is why when a ghost is fighting the area around it drops in temperature and light drastically. The 'laser beams' some of the more powerful ghosts can create is actually not there at all. It is simply a small part of the energy being transferred into heat energy (that's why it hurts) and light energy (that's the green glow). The energy is then fired and is transferred through air molecules and hits the target, where it is usually dissimilated by a solid. In the vacuum of space however, the ghost must fire a powerful attack which actually uses some of it's ectoplasm as a medium for the energy to travel towards the target

Danny lit his hand with as much energy as he could muster and plunged it into Terra's chest. The ecto energy flooded from Danny's body back into Terra's. Her eyes opened wide, shining with green light and she drew in a huge breath. The blood around her suddenly started to glow the same ghostly green while all the time slowly travelling back into the cuts. Danny gasped with the strain of what he was doing. The pain was unbearable as the very energy which held together his entire being circulated around Terra's system. Her heart beat faster, cuts closed in seconds; the ectoplasmic energy even took fresh oxygen towards her brain.

Robin and the rest of the Titans smashed through the door into the room, witnessing the entire spectacle with baited breath. The area around them was glowing a bright light as the transfer of energy continued, spurred on further even though Danny was tiring fast. Robin took a cautious step closer but quickly recoiled when a tendril of energy grew closer to him, as if daring him to come closer. Danny slowly pulled his hand out of Terras chest. Groggy and tired with the lack of energy, it took all of his willpower just to stay standing. He turning his head towards the Titans and let a wide grin grace his defeated features before slumping to the floor. Luckily Danny had mastered the art of keeping his ghost disguise enabled when passing out; a talent which had been useful many times before.

Robin grimaced as Phantom fell to the floor. He didn't know what he had done, but it had completely wiped him out.

"Robin? What do we do?" asked Beast Boy. The rest of the Titians looked at their leader for orders expectantly, all dumbstruck themselves for what they should do. Robin hesitated, unsure himself on how to handle the situations, Phantom was a threat, for that he was certain. But even Robin knew that it would not be fair to judge another so quickly when he had saved Terra so many times. It just wouldn't make sense to kill Terra after saving her. He let out an inward sigh before addressing his team.

"Cyborg, Starfire, take these two to the medical bay but keep phantom chained up with the energy cuffs for now. We don't know enough about him to make a judge about his intentions." The other Titans nodded carried out their orders. Beast Boy and Raven stayed behind while Cyborg and Starfire gently picked up the two and took them to the medical bay.

"What do you think they were doing?" Beast Boy asked, scratching his head with a green skinned hand.

"Raven?" Robin redirected the question at Raven. She sighed, this entire thing had been keeping her very frustrated from the moment she saw it.

"I honestly have no idea, but from the looks of it he saved her life once more." The heroes collectively nodded before making their own way towards the medical bay. A lot of questions needed to be answered.

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I just found out that I did not infact add chapter five to this story. Sorry for the wait.

One more note, does anybody like the demonata series? If so, check out a story on another website and this website made by me and one of my friends. Thanks!

.com/stories/16716709/lunchtime-demonata-1-kirsty

-James


	6. Chapter 6

**To be a hero: Chapter 6**

Terra opened her eyes slowly. A bright light shone down into her face from above her head. For a moment Terra thought that maybe... just maybe... she was in heaven. Her eyes adjusted to the introduction of such bright light and she realised she was in fact in the Titian Tower medical bay. The continuous beep of a life support machine which she guessed she was hooked up to drilled into her skull relentlessly. A groan escaped her lips. She felt like she had just died and come back to life in the space of 24 hours. Which was actually not so far from the truth.

Terra sat up on the bed and put her hand to her temple. She searched every corner of her mind to find a memory, a clue, anything! Which would explain why she was here. Her right hand instinctively moved to her left wrist, where scars were still evident. Terra' eyes widened. They knew. As Terra's hands feebly traced the scars, bringing back the memories of the previous night back into her mind's eye

Phantom had saved her once again. It was just at this moment where Beast Boy entered the room.

"Hey Guys!" he yelled. "She's awake" The shape shifter jumped on Terra and engulfed her in a bone-crushing hug. Soon after Starfire flew in and gave an even more painful hug.

"Help...me." She rasped. The other Titians laughed and gathered around her bed.

"What happened last night Terra?" asked Robin. Cyborg rolled his eyes.

_'Straight to business as usual then Robin'_ he thought. Seriously, could he not let the poor girl rest before bombarding her with an endless river of questions; many of which could be private or make her feel extremely uncomfortable

"You don't have to answer straight away Terra." Robin frowned at Cyborg's words. This could be an important security risk! "Take your time to get your memories straight."

"What's with those scars? They look... are you an emo!" everybody frowned at Beast Boys stereotyping ways. He made it sound like he was accusing somebody of a serious crime. Not labelling somebody unfairly and unturned insulting a large number of the population in the progress. Terra was worst hit. This was one of many reasons that she had never rekindled the romance they had once shared. Beast Boy was too much of a kid. To set to label people without even so much as a second thought to how they actually feel about what he was saying. In her youth Terra had actually quite liked the emo look, if it wasn't for Slade... when he was actually sane, she would most likely still have the looks of a stereotypical emo girl.

"No I'm not 'emo' as you so ignorantly put it; I just... lose control sometimes."

"Losing control of you're emotions doesn't usually make people cut themselves Terra." said Raven. Though her voice still sounded monotonous to most people, anybody who spent a lot of time around her would know that she was actually speaking in quite a concerned tone. Terra knew that his was true. She couldn't let then know her secret could she? No... maybe Danny, but not her teammates; not until this Phantom thing was over.

"I don't think I'm ready to tell you yet." she simply stated. Robin opened his mouth to object but was silenced by death glares from everybody else which seemed to say, 'Respect her wishes or be subjected to he worst possible pranks ever thought by a human mind.'

"Fine, maybe we can get some more info out of Phantom." Terra turned her head to where Robin was pointing. On the other side of the room a figure lay inside a quarantine chamber. The sides of the chamber were glowing with red energy but despite that you could clearly see a teenage boy dressed in a black hazmat suit. Terra let her eyes wander and take in all there was to see about the boy who had saved her life time and time again. His snow white hair covered his left eye but you could see from the right that they were a hypnotising neon green. They even seemed to be glowing slightly in the bright room. Terra was startled to see that he was unconscious but his eyes were still open. Was he dead? But ghosts can't die after all, been there, done that.

Terra quickly sprung out of the hospital bed and near flew towards the end of the room. The titans were perplexed, all the injuries and fatigue they were expecting to see fro her were virtually none existent; though she favoured her right arm as opposed to the left. Her face was pressed up against the glass as the other Titans gradually moved up to join her. Just on cue, Danny started to wake. When he was sitting up and the shocked look on his face had disappeared, Robin started to ask questions through a small intercom.

"Phantom, who are you and why have you taken such an interest in Terra." He spoke clearly into the mike. Phantom gave a small smile in Terra's direction before he turned his face to address Robin. Terra gave a small blush; it was almost an exact replica of the smile Danny gave. The one which made her heart soar and stomach do flip flops whenever she saw it.

"Well Robin," he started seriously. "For starters I have saved her many times, including last night, from certain death. I was the one who dropped her off her after she had finished with Slade." His voice took on an almost playful tone at the end as he started ticking off the points he made on his fingers.

"But why?" asked Beast Boy.

"Why not." He bluntly answered. He didn't want to go into details about how she reminded him of what he could have become. Evil and unforgiving. She had defeated her omens as had he, so it was only fitting that she survived to a ripe old age. Besides the fact the fact that Danny thought she was pretty cute…

"Fair enough, what did you do to her last night?" Danny rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. Terra gasped; another thing he had in common with her Danny. Where was he anyway? Terra voiced this question.

"Erm…" What the Titians saw was Phantom move closer to the edge of the containment device. Danny knew that he couldn't phase out of the chamber. However this didn't stop his powers from working fully. An invisible duplicate appeared outside of the box. He smiled at himself, literally. Clone-Danny reappeared outside the room and promptly turned back into his normal human self. His clone walked into the room to receive a huge hug from Terra. From his multi view, Phantom could see Beast Boy's eyes narrow at this act of affection. Danny raised an eyebrow at his reaction. He personally thought that her and Beast Boy had gotten over their feelings for each other months ago, seems like all was _not_ what it seemed in that department. _This could get interesting._ He thought before turning his attention back to Robin's question.

"I saved her life, using my very ecto energy to stimulate her body." Terra's face flushed with red as she associated the word 'stimulate' with a certain innuendo. Beast Boy turned even greener with envy also, but the involuntary joke was lost on the other occupants of the room. Robin asked for an in-depth explanation but Danny honestly had no more additional knowledge to offer.

"Could you let him go now please? It's hardly very gracious to leave him locked up after everything he has done really is it?" Clone Danny said. Though Robin wanted to ask more questions, he was swayed by a pleading Starfire with puppy dog eyes to let the shields down. Phantom gave one more wave to the group before turning invisible and joining back up with his clone. Now that the burden of having a multiple consciousnesses was lifted from Danny's mind, he could turn to bigger problems. Almost as soon as he and Terra had gotten away from the rest of the group they went back into her room. Danny had to talk to Terra about what he had seen earlier. Cutting…

Terra reluctantly walked into the room and immediately jumped onto the bed. It was a strange situation, on one hand Danny was in her room again and they were going to hang out, all alone. Of course he must know about her, tendencies, by now. Her secret had practically been the topic of choice whenever she wasn't around, not that she knew that. They sat down on her bed and Danny told her to make herself comfortable so she lay down on her soft, comfy pillows.

"I'm not going to shout at you Terra." Danny near whispered, his shoes catching his attention. "I just want to know why?"

Terra bit her lip. She shouldn't tell him, what would he think of her if he knew the truth of her heritage? Would he laugh? Would he get angry at her for what she had done in the past? Terra had the urge to slap herself; of course Danny would understand, he would care for her and help her through this, he would do everything in his power to make the others understand and volunteer his home to take her in if she was rejected. Danny Fenton was her guardian angel in this situation, along with her protector Danny Phantom…_weird how similar their names are._

"Do you promise not tot tell anybody!" she pleaded. Danny lifted his head and his ice blue eyes penetrated her stone grey.

"Of course I won't tell anyone Terra." he assured her. "It's obviously a big thing for you so you can tell it to your friends in your own time." Terra sighed. _Here goes everything._

__fdhsmf sjfbs fthw fhswkqlfb dwj_

_A small girl ran into the forest near her town. Her house was ablaze and the mob of angry villagers searched tirelessly for her, around the houses, near the shops. _

"_She can't have gone far! Split up into teams to find the demon." Shouted one of the members of the mob angrily. Tears streamed down her face as she watched the entire scene unfold from behind a tree. She watched her own mother get beaten and viciously raped by people who were once her friends. It all started the day the girl went down to the old quarry for a trip with her preschool. She started playing with the nearby rocks and didn't notice at first that they were floating until her teacher started screaming; yelling that the devil had found the village. Everybody in the old village were old time devout Catholics. The kind which had never grown out of middle age stupidity. So when they found out that one of their own (even if it was just a small, five year old girl) was exhibiting powers. They instantly believed that the girl was a witch. It never crossed their minds that such powers could be used for good, perhaps even to benefit them in the near future._

_As a team of villager got closer the poor girl ran further into the forest. She felt like she was running for hours until the fatigue of the constant strain on her young muscles caught up with her and she was forced to take a small rest on the side of a nearby stream. The young girls face was marred by the tear-stains which now adorned the pale, cute features. There was nothing the girl wanted to do, as she pulled her legs towards her chest, than to just leave it all behind. She was so innocent, she had no concept of suicide or death, but she still felt the primal human emotion to just fade into the background; stay curled up in the protective ball forever and a day._

"_Hello there little one. What's your name then?"_

_The kind face of a middle aged man, deceptive, charming. Little was the innocent to know that he would soon manipulate her, even if he didn't know about her powers. So she responded, albeit cautiously._

"_Terra."_

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VERY SORRY ABOUT THE WAIT!

I just stopped writing completely recently, even if I have wanted to update for ages now. Hopefully this is a little longer and you have all enjoyed it. I will try to update this story more often now.

-James


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